WeChat Article Extractor

Extract WeChat public account articles to clean Markdown. WeChat blocks headless browsers (环境异常 CAPTCHA) and web_fetch gets empty JS-rendered pages, so the reliable approach is: find a mirror on aggregator sites, then extract content.

Scope & Boundaries

This skill handles:

• Extracting article text, images, and metadata from WeChat article URLs

• Finding mirror copies when direct access is blocked

• Converting HTML to clean Markdown

• Saving output as .md files

This skill does NOT handle:

• Publishing or syncing to note-taking apps (that's the user's workflow)

• Batch extraction of multiple articles (handle one at a time)

• WeChat login, authentication, or account management

• Translating article content

Inputs

Input Required Description

WeChat URL Yes An mp.weixin.qq.com link

Output filename No Defaults to kebab-case of article title

Save location No Defaults to /tmp/

Outputs

• A Markdown file with full article content, images, and metadata header

• Console confirmation with file path and character count

Workflow

Step 1 — Try direct fetch (fast path)

web_fetch(url, extractMode="markdown", maxChars=50000)

Success check: If result rawLength > 500 AND content has real paragraphs (not just nav/footer text) → skip to Step 4 Option B.

Failure indicators: rawLength < 500 , content is navigation/boilerplate only, or contains "环境异常" → go to Step 2.

Step 2 — Extract article metadata

From the URL or any partial content, identify:

• Article title (from <title> or og:title)

• Author / account name (from og:description or page content)

If metadata is unavailable from the URL, ask the user for the article title.

Step 3 — Search for mirrors

web_search("<article title> <author/account name>")

Mirror site priority (ranked by content quality and reliability):

• 53ai.com — full content, reliable formatting

• mp.ofweek.com — tech articles

• juejin.cn — developer content

• woshipm.com — product/business content

• 36kr.com — tech/business news

If title is unknown, try: web_search("site:53ai.com <keywords from URL path>")

If no mirrors found: Try the Chrome Extension Relay fallback (see Fallback section).

Step 4 — Download and extract

Option A — Mirror found:

curl -s -L "<mirror_url>" -o /tmp/wechat-article.html

Verify file size > 10KB (smaller usually means redirect/error page).

Run the extraction script:

python3 <skill_dir>/scripts/extract_wechat.py /tmp/wechat-article.html /tmp/<output-filename>.md

Replace <skill_dir> with the directory containing this SKILL.md.

Option B — Direct fetch succeeded (Step 1): Format the fetched markdown with the header template below.

Step 5 — Verify output quality

Check the output file:

• Has a title (not "WeChat Article")

• Has multiple paragraphs of real content

• Images have valid URLs (not broken/placeholder)

• No excessive HTML artifacts remaining

If output looks truncated or garbled, try a different mirror site (return to Step 3).

Step 6 — Deliver to user

Report:

• File saved at: <path>

• Title: <title>

• Size: <char count> characters

• Image count: <N> images

If the user wants it saved to a specific location (e.g., Obsidian), follow their instructions for the final copy.

Markdown Header Template

Every extracted article must include this header:

<title>

作者： <author> 来源： 微信公众号「<account_name>」 日期： <date> 原文： <original_wechat_url>

摘要： <1-2 sentence summary generated from content>

Fields that cannot be determined should be omitted (don't write "Unknown").

Fallback: Chrome Extension Relay

If no mirror exists (very new or niche article):

Tell the user (in Chinese if they wrote in Chinese):

"没有找到镜像。请在 Chrome 中打开这篇文章，然后点击 OpenClaw Browser Relay 扩展图标（badge 亮起），我就能直接读取内容。"

Then use:

browser(action="snapshot", profile="chrome")

Extract content from the snapshot and format with the header template.

Error Handling

Problem Detection Action

WeChat blocks access rawLength < 500 or "环境异常" Search for mirrors (Step 3)

No mirrors found Search returns 0 relevant results Try Chrome Relay fallback

Mirror content truncated Output < 1000 chars when original is long Try next mirror site

Script extraction fails Python error or empty output Fall back to web_fetch on mirror URL

Images broken Image URLs return 404 Note in output; images may expire

Success Criteria

• Output Markdown contains the full article text (not truncated)

• Title and metadata are correctly extracted

• Images are preserved with working URLs

• No HTML artifacts or navigation junk in output

• File is saved at the specified location

Notes

• WeChat image URLs from mirrors (e.g., api.ibos.cn proxy) are generally valid and render in most Markdown viewers

• Mirror sites typically publish within minutes of the original

• The · · · section dividers are WeChat style — preserve them

• For very long articles (>50K chars), the script handles them fine but web_fetch may truncate

Configuration

No persistent configuration required. The skill uses standard OpenClaw tools (web_fetch , web_search , exec ) and optionally browser for the Chrome Relay fallback.

Required tools:

Tool Purpose

web_fetch

Direct article fetch attempt

web_search

Mirror site discovery

exec

Run curl and Python extraction script

Optional tools:

Tool Purpose

browser

Chrome Extension Relay fallback

System dependencies:

Dependency Purpose

Python 3.8+ Extraction script

curl Mirror page download